Pre-season friendly
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 2nd August 2005, 7.45pm
Lambs held at the Moat Ground
Gresley manager Gary Norton had his work cut out to field a team for this pre-season friendly at the Moat Ground.
Aaron O'Connor was ill, Gary White had injured his back at work, Carl Adams, Emeka Ejiofor and Tony Brown absent through work commitments and defender Mark Stryzewski - who Norton wanted to have another look at - out with an injured shoulder playing for Belper the previous night.
With David Holmes and Mickey Lyons both away on holiday Norton had to interrupt the reserves training evening to draft in players for the game.
Tamworth fielded a strong line-up including former Rovers defender Jimmy Turner and ex-West Bromwich Albion striker Bob Taylor.
The first half was a game where the home side were put under pressure for long periods.
Although Gresley forced two early corners the lion's share of the first period belonged to the Lambs but a combination of wasteful finishing and superb saves by Gavin Saxby amazingly kept the game goalless by half time.
On 18 minutes Taylor put his shot wide and during the next 15 minutes or so Tamworth had further chances from Tris Whitmore, Kyle Storer and Hugh McAuley all wasting gilt-edged opportunities.
Home keeper Saxby produced a superb save on 36 minutes tipping Whitman's shot over the bar. Four minutes later he made an equally brilliant save this time to turn Taylor's drive round the post.
Gresley had a makeshift defence with striker Paul Edwards called to play in the central position along side Andy Simpson making a great job of his task in his unaccustomed role.
Gresley's best chance came on 42 minutes when Carl Slater won possession on the edge of the Tamworth box and found Nathan Tate, but keeper Alex Bacherini easily dealt with his deflected shot.
Would the floodgates open in the second half? No. In fact Gresley managed to nullify the Tamworth game for long periods and the chances for both sides were few and far between.
On the hour Chris Gray's free kick from the right found Edwards who did well to get off a shot but unfortunately it was straight at the keeper.
There was one more half chance for Tamworth four minutes later when McAuley fired wide.
A flurry of substitutions for both sides interrupted the game and it finished it's course with neither side getting on the scoresheet.
Manager's View
"I'm delighted with that to be honest. The day I've had trying to patch a team together again. It's been a thing this pre-season - I look down the list of 18 or 19 players that I have to call on and then I have to raid the reserves training session tonight to get three players to make the bench.
"It's very frustrating but when they put a performance in like that it does go some way to appeasing the situation. It is frustrating because we have got some key players missing and there is only three weeks to go before the start of the season. We want to work on one or two things but we haven't got the bodies.
"Credit to the lads tonight it's been a fantastic fitness exercise for them and it's done them a lot of favours.
"First half they had some near bits and bobs but the second half I think we earned that clean sheet.
"Paul Edwards was joking before the match saying how versatile he is and that he could play anywhere for us. We had the opportunity in pre-season to see him in central midfield and he put some good passes around and tonight, earlier than was expected we had the opportunity to see him in central defence. He looked assured and confident both in the air and on the deck. He's going to be a fantastic asset if he keeps putting those sorts of performances in. We are considering at the moment which outfield player will be our back up keeper so we will have a look at Paul in training!
"I'm a bit concerned about Gary White because he has pulled a muscle in his back at work and was even struggling to walk. We've arranged for him to see a physio to assess the injury and we're hoping it's not too serious."
"There were one or two plusses from tonight's game. Danny Tyers played his first game for the first team, Paul Grosse has also done well. They've come in and done a good job and it's given us food for thought."
